PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg South was thinking upset on senior night here Monday inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center, but Bri Fox had a personal 10-0 spurt in the first quarter in route to a game-high 19 points as No. 5, Class AAAA University left town with a 62-54 victory.
Farrah Yost, who knocked down four of the Patriots’ 11 3-pointers while adding six boards and a trio of blocks to go with her team-high dozen counters, was honored alongside fellow senior Regan Shockey, who had eight points, a team-high seven caroms as well as three dimes.
“The kids did a really good job on the boards tonight,” admitted Parkersburg South head coach Ed Davis, who watched his team suffer a 73-51 road setback to the Hawks on Jan. 2. “We cut back our turnovers. We turned the ball over 20 times up there. We were chasing them the whole game up there. We made significant improvements in those areas. We’ve had four practices at full strength, and we’ve had a lot of games in there.
“They are disappointed. They especially wanted to win for Regan and Farrah and they’re disappointed. Two heart-breaking kinds of losses back-to-back, because we were ahead of Spring Valley late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter down there. We battled tonight. We just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
Parkersburg South, which slipped to 3-11 and plays Wednesday at Huntington, knocked down its first three 3-pointers with Yost canning two and Emilee Owens one as the Hawks trailed 10-5 just 1:17 in.
However, Fox hit a three, knocked down two charity-stripe tosses, scored on a baseline lay-in via a Julia Maisel assist and then drained a triple thanks to an Alexa Johnson feed to help turn the tide. The key 12-0 spurt was capped when Hannah Stemple, who scored 14 points and grabbed seven boards, got one of her game-high five assists thanks to a Johnson deuce.
Down 18-12 after one, the hosts only trailed 26-21 with 3:04 left in the half following a foul shot from Shockey. The Hawks, who improved to 8-5 and play Tuesday night at Buckhannon-Upshur, proceeded to score seven straight to take their first double digit lead of the affair. Lexi Simpson, who had nine points as well as game-highs of 14 rebounds and four blocks, had a bucket, which was followed by a Whitney Cox hoop and a Stemple trifecta for a 33-21 advantage.
Parkersburg South went into halftime down nine after Shockey found Yost for a three.
Thanks to a buzzer-beating triple by Taelyn Richards, who joined teammate Lucie Cline with nine points and tied Yost for game-high steals honors with three, the hosts only trailed 46-39 entering the final eight minutes.
Coach Davis’ squad, which missed 18 straight field goals in the first after going up 10-5 before Auyner Joyce got a putback, found themselves down 53-39 with 3:53 remaining. Joyce, though, followed with a pair of treys thanks to assists from Macy Singer and Yost, which cut the deficit to eight.
That proved to be as close as the Patriots would get the rest of the way as Cline’s buzzer-beater 3-pointer set the final score.
Cline, who was in foul trouble and had six caroms, finished with nine points and joined Yost, Owens and the Hawk Fox with a quartet of assists.
“They are resilient, and we’ll bounce back,” added coach Davis. “They want to shoot more and obviously we need to get up more shots.
“It’s just finding the time and the gym time to do those things which is easier said than done some days, but I’m proud of their effort. We’re playing hard.”
Maisel joined Simpson with nine markers on a night when the Patriots won the turnover battle 11-9, came up just short on the boards, 42-37, and shot less than 30% from the floor, which included going 11 of 33 from 3-point distance.
Box score
UNIVERSITY (8-5)
Julia Maisel 3 2-4 9, Bri Fox 4 8-8 19, Alexa Johnson 3 0-0 6, Lexi Simpson 4 1-1 9, Hannah Stemple 4 4-6 14, Whitney Cox 2 1-2 5, Bella Hall 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 20 16-21 62; 3-point goals: Fox 3, Stemple 2, Maisel 1
PARKERSBURG SOUTH (3-11)
Regan Shockey 3 2-4 8, Farrah Yost 4 0-0 12, Emilee Owens 3 0-0 8, Lucie Cline 4 0-0 9, Taelyn Richards 3 1-2 9, Macy Singer 0 0-0 0, Auyner Joyce 3 0-0 8; TOTALS: 20 3-6 54.
Shooting: U 20-49 (40.8%), PS 20-68 (29.4%); 3-pointers: U 6-17, PS 11-33; Rebounds: U 42 (Simpson 14, Johnson 8, Stemple 7), PS 37 (Shockey 7, Yost, Cline 6); Assists: U 14 (Stemple 5, Fox 4), PS 17 (Yost, Owens, Cline 4); Steals: U 5 (Johnson, Simpson 2), PS 9 (Yost, Richards 3, Owens 20; Blocks: U 4 (Simpson 4), PS 4 (Yost 3, Cline 1); Turnovers: U 11, PS 9.
— Story by Jay W. Bennett
